Their darkest hour

Laurence Rees has spent nearly 20 years meeting people who were tested to the extreme during World War II. He has come face-to-face with rapists, mass murderers, even cannibals, but he has also met courageous individuals who are an inspiration to us all. Here he presents 35 of his most electrifying encounters, from Estera Frenkiel, a young Jewish woman given the chance to save ten fellow Jews from deportation and death to Hiroo Onoda, a Japanese soldier, so fanatical that he refused to surrender for 29 years after the end of the war. The devastating first-hand testimony in Their Darkest Hour is both a lasting contribution to our understanding of the war and a powerful insight into the behaviour of a human being in crisis. Originally published: 2007. x, 310 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 20 cm